Suffolk alumni star in "The Aliens"

11/15/2010

Suffolk alumni Nael Nacer and Alex Pollock, who performed together in the University's Theatre Department productions, are appearing on stage together again in The Aliens by Annie Baker at the Boston Center for the Arts.

The Aliens is Company One's contribution to the Shirley, VT. Plays festival at the Boston Center for the Arts, where Baker's works Circle Mirror Transformation (by the Huntington Theater Company) and Body Awareness (by the SpeakEasy Stage Company) are also being performed. The three productions take place in the fictional town of Shirley, VT, and have already been staged to much acclaim during the last two years in New York.

In The Aliens, a mentally unstable college dropout (Pollock) and an angry aspiring novelist (Nacer), hang out by the dumpster behind the coffee shop where they meditate on music, philosophy and Bukowski. Both Nacer and Pollock grew out full, untrimmed beards and heads of hair for this beatnik play about friendship, ritual and small town New England.

The Shirley, VT., Plays is at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., through Saturday, Nov. 20. Tickets: 617-933-8600, bostontheatrescene.com or shirleyvtplays.com.

While at Suffolk, Pollock was the recipient of the 2005 Princess Grace Foundation Award and a 2004 TVI Actors Studio Scholarship from The Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. Nacer received a 2004 National Festival Fellowship from the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre for his portrayal of Berenguer in Suffolk's "Rhinoceros."